System and method for using e-mail as advertisement medium

Abstract

It is an object of the present invention to use electronic mail as an advertising medium so as to provide a user with an advertisement having a large information-communicating effect. A mail server 40 stores various advertising information items received from various advertisers, as well as distribution dates and / or times and / or recipient user attributes (region of residence, age, sex, etc.) and other such distribution conditions established by respective advertisers for respective advertising information items. When electronic mail is to be sent to a user 20 associated with mail server 40, such server 40 selects an advertising information item or items for which the current date and / or time, attribute or attributes of user 20, and / or the like match the previously established distribution condition or conditions, and affixes such advertising information item or items to a user-defined header of electronic mail which is sent to recipient user 20. Specially designed mail software 21 is present at a computer associated with recipient user 20, such specially designed mail software 21 extracting advertising information item or items from such user-defined header of received electronic mail and displaying same at a mail body or within a progress display window during downloading of mail.

Description

FIELD OF ART[0001] The present invention pertains to art for using electronic mail as an advertising medium through affixing of advertising information to electronic mail.BACKGROUND OF ART[0002] Accompanying popularization of the Internet there is an increase in the number of companies offering free mail services through which electronic mail is distributed at no charge. Conventional free mail services may be categorized into two types. In the first type, represented by Hotmail.TM. of Microsoft Corporation of the U.S., banner ads are pasted into a region at the top, bottom, left, right, or the like of the body of Web-based electronic mail. In the second type, while sending and receiving of electronic mail in standard SMTP-POP format using ordinary mail software is permitted, a user may expect to receive any number of questionnaires, direct mail (DM) solicitations, and the like in any given day.[0003] Moreover, while some variation exists depending upon electronic mail server adminis...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017] It is an object of the present invention to use electronic mail as an advertising medium so as to provide a user with an advertisement having a large information-communicating effect.

[0018] It is another object of the present invention to use electronic mail as an advertising medium so as to make it possible for an advertisement to be placed at conditions (e.g., targeted audience to which advertisement is to be sent, date or dates or time or times of day when advertising is to be carried out, advertisement cost, etc.) agreeable to an advertiser.

[0019] It is still another object of the present invention to use electronic mail as an advertising medium so as to permit accurate measurement of advertising effectiveness.

[0021] In accordance with such a system, advertisement distribution condition or conditions (e.g., distribution date or dates and / or time or times, attribute or attributes of user recipient or recipients to be targeted for distribution, etc.) are previously established for respective advertising information item or items, advertising information item or items is or are selected based on such advertisement distribution condition or conditions and is or are affixed to electronic mail, distributed to such user recipient or recipients, and displayed at user computer or computers. Because respective advertising information item or items can be sent at appropriate time or times to appropriate user or users as a result of appropriate establishment of advertisement distribution condition or conditions for respective advertising information item or items, the information-communicating effect of the advertisement on the user is increased. Furthermore, where such advertising information item or items is or are displayed during receipt of electronic mail, because during receipt of electronic mail it is common for a user to be looking at the screen while awaiting completion of receipt thereof, utilization of such time for advertising is permitted, heightening advertisement information-communicating effect.

[0031] In accordance with such a server system, because award points increase with increasing frequency of use of electronic mail, utilization of electronic mail can be encouraged, improving the effectiveness of advertising. Since not a gift but only a stake in a drawing is conferred at low cost based on award points, by at such server system investigating such history of electronic mail sent and / or received by such user prior to conferring such drawing stake it is possible to prescreen for users who may have sent themselves large volumes of electronic mail or engaged in other such fraudulent conduct. By controlling accruing of award points and / or controlling determination of whether such a drawing stake or stakes is or are to be awarded, it is possible to prevent conferring of drawing stake or stakes to user or users who may have engaged in such fraudulent conduct.

Problems solved by technology

Furthermore, the standard conventional ways in which advertisers have determined advertising effectiveness (e.g., advertisement view rate) have been limited to methods involving looking at performance in terms of actual customer acquisition or the like or looking at results of surveys performed by viewership rating research firms and so forth.

Furthermore, in the latter type, in which questionnaires and direct mail solicitations are sent, there is the problem that since the user is liable to associate these with pressure tactics and since there is a strongly coercive component to the annoying questionnaires, the user may well not be motivated to examine their content in detail.

Furthermore, with respect to the advertising sales methods that rely on the efforts of salespersons, these are lacking in consistency, it being for example possible for differences to arise from salesperson to salesperson with respect to the conditions for placement of an ad and in the cost estimates which are provided to potential customers.

As a result, the advertiser faces the distasteful prospect of not being able to place an advertisement at conditions agreeable to the advertiser.

Moreover, accurate measurement and analysis of advertising effectiveness has been difficult to achieve through conventional methods of determining advertising effectiveness.

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